Break the News, Not the Hearts
by Meatball42
Summary: Brennan's method of interviewing may need to be tweaked a little bit...


**This was originally the third chapter of a case!fic I started. Soon after writing the fourth chapter, I realized I hate case!fics, so I'm trying to turn all the chapters into one-shots. Hope you enjoy!**

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Booth pulled his partner aside just before they entered the FBI conference room. "Hey, Bones," Booth said in a low voice. "Let me do all the talking, okay?"

"Why can't I talk to the suspects?" Brennan inquired, sneaking a peek at the interviewee through the glass panes of the wall.

Booth pulled her out of sight by her elbow. "Because you tend to, well-" he tried to think of a polite way to word his thoughts under Dr. Brennan's uncompromising stare. "Just let me do the talking." He made a last shushing motion and, before Dr. Brennan could retort, straightened his tie and walked into the room.

"Mr. Hennessey, Dr. Temperance Brennan with the Jeffersonian Institute in D.C." He motioned to Brennan as he introduced her, and they both shook the older gentleman's hand.

John Hennessey was an average-sized man with a wrinkled face and a few wisps of white visible above his ears, the only hair on his mostly bald head. Despite his appearance, the man was barely fifty, and his skin was evenly tanned from weeks spent on a golf course golf course. He smiled tightly as the FBI agent made introductions and clasped Booth's hand firmly before speaking.

"You can call me John, Agent Booth." He gestured toward a blonde woman in a comfortable green suit. "This is my wife, Alicia."

Alicia Hennessey stood gracefully from the chair next to her husband's. She smoothed down the pencil skirt of her suit and shook Booth's hand over the table, wobbling slightly in her high heels.

"It's nice to meet you," she said, smiling at the two investigators before a nervous look came over her face. "The agent who called us said this was about our friend Ronald. Is he alright?" She asked, her voice concerned.

Ronald Dale, a friend of the Hennessey family, was doing them a favor by installing their new pool. The Hennessey's maid had nearly fainted in horror when she'd found the body inside the concrete on the side of the pool, but Dr. Brennan hadn't even flinch upon arriving at the crime scene.

Her nonchalance in the face of the unusual method of death was obvious as she answered Alicia's question. "Mr. Dale was killed in your backyard, and his body was put into the concrete of your new pool."

The shocked looks on the faces of Mr. and Mrs. Hennessey were broken by a sudden sob from the doorway to the conference room. Booth and Brennan turned around and saw the wife of the late Ronald, Eva Dale. She was in her early twenties wearing a yellow and orange sundress, and her most of her black hair was tied in a haphazard braid. A few rumpled strands had wiggled free and stuck to her cheeks where tears were just starting to trail down.

The new widow barely seemed to notice when Alicia rushed over to her and hugged her uncertainly. Alicia looked to her husband with confusion. 'What should I do?' she mouthed.

While Alicia tried to comfort the woman, Booth pulled his partner out of the conference room. "You made her cry, Bones! What happened to letting me do the talking?"

Brennan looked thoroughly surprised by the turn of events. "I simply made a statement summarizing the facts of the case!" She argued. "Why is she crying?" Brennan attempted to look over Booth's shoulder, but he moved closer and spoke so that she had to focus on him.

"Maybe because you just told her that her husband was turned into a pool wall?" Booth whispered intently. Brennan stared at him for a moment, comprehension leaking slowly into her eyes, and he sighed. "Just let _me_ talk!"

Booth walked cautiously to the seat where Alicia had managed to maneuver Eva Dale, whose tears had abated somewhat. John stood next to the chair, rubbing his friend's shoulder comfortingly. "Mrs. Dale?" He said quietly. A tear-streaked face peered up at him. "I'm very sorry about your husband," he began.

Eva Dale stood up suddenly, throwing off Mrs. Hennessey's arms. "He wasn't my husband," she insisted angrily. "I filed for a divorce." With that, she stormed out of the room, wiping the wetness off her face.

Alicia stared after her in shock. "Did you know they'd called off the wedding?" She asked her husband. He was wearing the same look of surprise.

"I hadn't heard a word of it." Mr. Hennessey turned away from the doorway where Eva had left. "I don't know why any of this happened. Ronald was one of the nicest men I know. He's a friend of our son Tim's, you see," he explained to Booth. "They went to college together, and now Tim got a job across the country."

"Do you two know of anyone who had had a grudge against Robert?" Booth asked the couple.

"Not at all," Alicia responded, wiping away a few tears that had appeared at the corners of her eyes. "Like John said, he was such a nice boy."

"Could we continue this later, Agent Booth?" Mr. Hennessey asked quietly, rubbing his wife's back.

"Of course." Booth stood and put away his notebook. He left the couple to their mourning and turned to where he expected Brennan to be standing, only to be met with an empty doorway. Confused by her absence, Booth returned to his office and found the forensic scientist sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk, staring at the wall with glassy eyes.

"Bones! What's up? Why'd you leave the interview?"

Brennan jumped at the sound of Booth's nickname for her. "It's nothing, Booth," she sighed, standing up and gathering her purse. "I have to get back to the Jeffersonian."

Booth had seen the unusually negative look on his partner's face and he caught her arm, lightly tugging her back to the seat, and sat down next to her. "Bones, I can tell when something's up. What's the matter?"

Brennan looked Booth in the eyes, her expression confused and longing. "Why can't I get along with people like you can? I obviously didn't say the right thing back there, even though all I did was state the facts."

Booth understood his friend's concerns. This was the first time Brennan had made someone cry, but it was definitely not the first time she'd unsettled a witness or the family of the victim.

"Here's the thing, Bones." She looked at him hopefully, hazel eyes wide, and he smiled to put her at ease. "When somebody's family dies, or their friends, you have to be careful breaking it to them. Especially if it was someone they loved."

Brennan shook her head, still not understanding. "But they should be able to realize that crying and displays of emotions solve nothing!" Her voice rose in pitch as she made her point.

"But people can't help it when it's their family, Bones." Booth leaned forward to gain her attention as he spoke. "Look, when you tell somebody their relative of friend is dead, you gotta realize that that moment is going to replay in their head for days, even weeks after you tell them. The only way they can take even the slightest bit of comfort is if the news is delivered in a comforting way. The trick is to break the news without breaking anyone's heart."

Dr. Brennan looked thoughtful for a moment as she considered Booth's words. "So, you're saying it's not the words you say, but the way you say them?"

Booth cringed for a moment. "Well, the words can be important, too. I mean, maybe it would've been better for that woman to have a few minutes to process her husband's death before finding out that the killer cemented him into a pool?"

"It was concrete, Booth." They both smiled as they recalled a previous case. "But I can understand your point." She took a deep breath. "I will let you inform family members of the information on the decedent until I am better able to do so without upsetting potential witnesses."

"Great!" Booth grinned as he stood up. "I think we need pie. You want some pie?"

Brennan shook her head, but smiled as she followed him out of the office. "I never want pie, Booth, I've told you that. But I wouldn't say not to some coffee at the diner."

"That's my girl."

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**You just spent all that time reading my story. Make sure you didn't waste all that time by writing a review! I'm always open to suggestions, and reviews tell me that I'm not just writing to myself, because I don't really understand the hits/visitors thingy on my profile.**


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